Coughing at night for 2 months now

[dexlor]

I just saw a posting on this and I'm sorry if I'm being repetitive but I haven't seen anyone dealing with this for this long. My 21 month old DD had a bit of a cold 2 months ago and recovered from that, seemingly. She's also had all of her first molars coming in, so lots of drooling. She coughs once or twice during the day, but she'll cough every 2 or 3 minutes for up to an hour around 11 every night and then right before she gets up every morning. She's been in to see the doctor twice and they're stymied. We have a humidifier in her room and add eucalyptus oil and lavender oil diffused with water. We tried elevating her mattress a wee bit. Last night we removed a small fake Christmas tree and a small area rug that have been there for about as long as she's been couging after her bout at 11:00 last night. She otherwise is healthy. Lungs and oxygen are fine according to doctor. They suggested a trial run of asthma medication--in case in might be cough variant asthma. We gave her 2 puffs and that night she coughed almost every hour and to the point where she threw up some. So, we stopped that. Next is to try allergy meds. I hate trying any meds at all. I typically nurse her when she coughs so long but that doesn't really alleviate it.

Anyone else been through this? My biggest fear is that the doctors are missing something that could potentially turn into a bigger health problem or that there is something underlying this that they are missing. We're all exhausted from this and really worried.

Thanks!

[2xy]

I have cough-variant asthma. I've had it since I was a child but only recently learned that it can be caused/made worse by acid reflux. I never experienced actual heartburn (until very recently), but suffered from reflux nonetheless. Controlling the reflux helps keep my asthma under control.

Inhalers that relax bronchial tubes can also relax the esophageal sphincter, which can make reflux worse, which can make asthma worse. I don't know what kind of inhaler they gave you, but see if they can give you something that is soothing but does not contain bronchial dilaters, like Q Var.

[Peony]

DD2 is 3 now and had the exact same thing the last three winters, we are currently going through it right now. She was up from 10pm-12am last night sitting on the couch just coughing. For her, it is a cough variant asthma. We use Xopenex and Flovent together to control it, well that last winter. I will say that when we started the inhalers last time, the cough got worse before getting better and it took 2 weeks, at the very end of the 2 weeks I was getting ready to go back in because the inhalers were not working and then suddenly the cough was gone. She coughed last time for over 2 months, this time it has been since before Thanksgiving.


I was a complete idiot and just chalking it up to the never ending colds that DD1 brings home from school but then as I was sitting on the couch last night with her, it hit me that it was once again reactive airway disease which it what they term it in children that are too young to go through the asthma testing. Every year it is getting sooner in the cold season on when we have to start the inhalers, the first year it was April, last year it was Feb, now Dec. Her only symptom ever is the cough, it gets worse at night, during the day she barely coughs, but at night it is constant. She can run around like crazy all day and not cough but the second she falls asleep it starts up again.

[rvamommy]

We went through something very similar with our DD @ 14 mo.. She had a cold and it cleared but she had lots of lingering phlegm, a rattley cough, and a post nasal drip. We've been using a humidifier and trying to treat hollistically but got to the point where we needed to do something a little more serious. What helped for her was OTC Zyrtec. We gave it to her for about 2 weeks and then stopped using it and the cough and runny nose was gone. Now @ 17 mo. she is getting over a cold with the same symptoms and we started the Zyrtec about 3 days ago & it has stopped her post nasal drip & cough again.

She is also teething molars (just broke her 2 years) so has had a lot of sinus irritation & drooling & I think the Zyrtec was enough to give her body a chance to fully recover.

Hope it might help. Good luck!

[Peony]

Only got a second, DD1 is chomping at the bit to hit the slopes for some boarding, but I'll also agree with the previous poster. We explored reflux for DD2 as well, it wasn't it for her, but it certainly can cause a cough for some children at night. I would defintely look into it.

[colleentara]

Ds (19 mo.) was coughing at night for a couple of months too...but he also had colds that kept coming back. The dr. did prescribe an inhaler, but we never filled it. Finally, his last cold led to some more green snot and just wouldn't go away so the dr. prescribed antibiotics. We were reluctant, but after a week on it, the cough is gone and he feels a lot better.

[calendula]

Subbing and FWIW - my 16mth old is up coughing at *exactly* the same time every night - 2.15am. She coughs almost non-stop for about an hour. It was longer. This has been going on for about 7-10days. She has a runny nose in the day (clear) but I haven't heard her cough in the day, only at night.

Do you think we should be investigating this deeper? I thought up to now it was the extreme cold combined with runny nose (post-cold). We haven't tried a humidifier but have used eucalyptus oil which didn't help at all.

[UrbanMamma]

We went through a period around 16-18 months where this was happening. Around 1am, he would wake up and cough until he threw up and then was up for an hour and then went back to bed. I finally got nervous and went in to talk infection and/or asthma. It continued after a round of antibiotics (the only round he has ever had). I decided to remove cows milk from his diet, replacing with hemp. It has been introduced at 12 months with no issues, but still, what did I have to lose? Within 2 days, the issue cleared. I was able to switch back to cows about 4 months later with no problems.